Christmas Greetings from Paul Abels

Joy to the world, the Lord is come! We rejoice in Jesus who was born to die, and died to live that we might be born again to live forever with Him! We are having a wonderful time preparing for Christmas in the U.S. this year. The sound of carols all around and the beauty of the lights warm our hearts.

The past two weekends we spent at uplifting Christmas concerts – first for Matthew at Hillcrest and then for Andrew at AFLBS. Both concerts honored Christ and turned our hearts to worship the Savior. We are so thankful for the opportunity our children have had to study at Christian schools and sing in great choirs. It is an extra bonus to be able to attend the concerts and see our sons participating in these special events. Both boys have had very positive experiences at school this semester and have done very well academically as well.

Christina arrived safely from Brazil today, soon to be followed by her fiancée Daniel on Sunday. Next week we travel to Hitterdal to be with the Abel gang for a couple of days. Christmas will be celebrated with the whole Dahlin family in Northfield. We will just be missing Joanna, Silvio and Deborah and our nephew Seth. Patricia, our Brazilian Bible School student, will also spend the holidays with us. We’re looking forward to a very special family time. We’re hoping for snow so that we can experience a traditional white Christmas.

Dec. 28 is quickly arriving when we plan to wing our way back to sunny Brazil. We have a prayer request for you. My Brazilian visa has been renewed but I need to pick it up personally in Brazil. I found out this week that in order to do this I will need to get a tourist visa to return to the country. Please pray that the visa would be granted and arrive in time for me to travel. Also pray for safe travels. As many of you know, the boys will be going to Brazil with us – Matthew to finish his junior year home schooling and Andrew to help out with the ministry.

Andrew was recently approved as a short-term assistant for six months through the AFLC. He will be helping with many projects and will soon send out a letter explaining his goals and dreams for ministry. We would appreciate your prayers and support for him as he joins us. You can just imagine how happy we are to have the chance to be together as family for a few more months!

On a sad note, our anticipation of being grandparents again was short-lived. Joanna had a miscarriage last week, so now one member of our family has preceded us to heaven. She and Silvio are doing fine and trust in God’s sovereignty. They are at peace and look forward to another baby in God’s timing.

We are glad to be finished with our traveling. We did 82 public mission presentations and 40 private showings of our Power Point presentation. We traveled 16,500 miles by car and few more thousand by air. We slept in many different beds and ate lots of wonderful food. The best part of our furlough, though, was being with people – old and new friends who reached out to us in love and interest in the work that God is doing in Brazil. Thank you to each one with whom we had the pleasure of spending time. Thank you, too, for willingly supporting us with your financial gifts and faithful prayers. We are happy to represent you as missionaries.

This week we had Mission Board meetings and sent out lots of letters. We still have some office work to finish up before we can just kick back and relax for a couple of days. One project we hope to work on is organizing the program for Children’s Camp which will happen soon after our arrival in Brazil. It is scheduled for Jan. 8-13. We need your prayers for wisdom, creativity, health, balance and lots of love for everyone who awaits us south of the equator.

We wish you a joyous Christmas celebration – joy does not depend on feeling happy, but on knowing the One who was born in a manger. May His joy be made complete in you as you look to Him. “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make your joy complete.” I John 1:3-4

Our love and best wishes to you,

Paul and Becky

P.S. Last month our church in Bateias planned a missionary outreach to an unevangelized area in the “back 40.” They took a busload of people to spend a weekend visiting door-to-door and sharing in open air meetings. They stayed in a house with no electricity and no running water. They had a great experience and look forward to returning to do follow-up work. God’s plan for Christians includes moving out of our “comfort zone” to share with those who do not yet know Jesus.